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Ugandan gay rights activists believe the police and government officials are using the brutal murder of gay rights activist David Kato as an excuse to again whip up support for an anti-homosexuality bill (so severe that it dictates imprisonment, and even execution for the ‘crime’ of homosexuality) still pending in Parliament. “Shortly after we buried David, Bahati (the sponsor of the anti-homosexuality bill) issued a statement saying, ‘This is the gay violence we have been talking about,’” Kaggwa said in an interview with Religion Dispatches. “There is a correlation there between this very convenient confession by this guy and this statement.”

Despite the risk, Bishop Senyonjo has continued to minister to Uganda’s LGBT community. If he didn’t, it’s unlikely that anyone else would. After the other pastor’s invective against gays at Kato’s funeral, locals from his ancestral village refused to carry the casket to where it was to be buried. Some in attendance grabbed the activist’s white and gold coffin, which was draped with a rainbow flag, and carried it themselves. They would have had to bury Kato, who identified as Christian, without a blessing from any member of the clergy had Senyonjo not stepped in. “I believed that it wasn’t right just to dump the body there without prayers. I couldn’t bear it at any cost,” he said later.

Gov. Rick Scott broke with tradition to announce his budget in front of tea partiers in a central Florida church.

Students have tried to explain away “fiscal extravagance, alcoholism, cruelty, sex addiction, violence, and even rape” among revered spiritual teachers, says Erik Storlie.

Tea Partier Phillip Dennis disputes Obama’s version of US history. Guess who’s right?

So sayeth American Family Association’s Bryan Fischer.

A matter of form, not substance.

Says a carpenter knows a three-legged stool needs to be strong.

The church, in its ignorance of and hostility to evolution, is passing up one of its greatest opportunities to apprehend the very God it claims to represent. This irony is due to a terrible case of what may be called “small-god-ism” and is, unfortunately, encouraged by much popular theology. This theology makes claims about scripture and church practice that reduce God to a cheerleader, or a cosmic vending machine, or some domesticated and pale image of our own confused selves.